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Description

Customer Credit Risk: Assessing Solvency, Setting Credit Limits and Securing Guarantees

Decide how far to commit your company to a customer before the invoice is issued

  • 2 days — 14 h
  • In-person or virtual
  • Intermediate
  • Up to 6 participants

A salesperson commits the company to a major order and the question of solvency comes up afterwards. Credit limits either do not exist or are never reviewed, the guarantees requested go no further than a down payment, and the failure of one mid-sized customer is enough to wipe out several months of margin.

These two days address the prevention of customer credit risk rather than the chasing of overdue invoices. Participants learn to analyse a customer's financial position, to set and then maintain a credit limit, to choose between the guarantees and risk transfer instruments available, and to monitor their portfolio using alerts that are genuinely useful.

Learning objectives

  • Analyse a customer's financial position from its published accounts
  • Set a credit limit proportionate to the commercial stake and the level of risk
  • Select guarantees suited to the customer profile and the nature of the sale
  • Establish a procedure for opening and reviewing customer accounts
  • Monitor the portfolio using prioritised warning signals

What makes this programme different

Financial analysis is carried out on real accounts through to the credit limit decision
Guarantees are compared on cost and on effectiveness in the event of default
A customer account opening procedure is drafted during the programme

Programme

1Assessing a Customer's Solvency

Deciding on facts

  • Reading a balance sheet and an income statement from a risk perspective
  • Financial structure and liquidity indicators
  • External information sources and available credit ratings
  • Weak signals from payment behaviour
  • Limits of the information available

2Setting and Managing Credit Limits

Setting a limit that holds

  • Methods for determining a credit limit
  • Balancing commercial opportunity against accepted risk
  • Account opening procedure and treatment of exceptions
  • Periodic review and adjustment of limits
  • Order blocking and trade-offs with sales teams

3Guarantees and Risk Transfer

Securing the sale

  • General terms of sale and retention of title clauses
  • Down payments, sureties and bank guarantees
  • Credit insurance and the scope actually covered
  • Factoring and assignment of receivables
  • Comparative cost of the different protections

4Managing the Customer Portfolio

Seeing default coming

  • Portfolio segmentation by risk level
  • Indicators for tracking outstanding balances and overdue amounts
  • Alert system and triggering of actions
  • Provisioning for doubtful receivables
  • Dialogue with the finance and sales leadership

Who is it for

Credit managers and finance and administration managers, as well as credit analysts and sales managers involved in opening customer accounts.

Prerequisites

Experience of monitoring customer accounts and the ability to read a balance sheet and an income statement.

Dates & locations

36 scheduled dates between November 2026 and December 2027. Seats are confirmed in the order enquiries are received.

November 2026

December 2026

January 2027

February 2027

March 2027

April 2027

May 2027

June 2027

September 2027

October 2027

November 2027

December 2027

None of these dates suit you? We open additional sessions on request, and any programme can be run privately for your team.

Practical details

Before the programme
Online positioning questionnaire. Your development objectives are shared with the trainer, who tailors the practical case studies to your context.
Teaching methods
Theoretical input, workshops and practical case studies. Digital course materials and method sheets provided.
Assessment
Multiple-choice tests and role-play exercises. Assessment of learning at the start and end of the programme, with immediate and 60-day follow-up evaluations.
After the programme
One year of access to the e-learning platform. Self-assessment of the skills acquired and a 30-day follow-up session with your trainer.
How to register
Registration online or on the basis of a quotation.
Lead time
11 working days after confirmation of registration.
Accessibility
Accessible to people of determination. Contact our accessibility coordinator to design a suitable solution: contact@mpf-academy.ae
Start dates
Rolling intake: in addition to the scheduled sessions, this programme can start on request.